Nick Spreen, a resident of New York City, received a surprising alert on his iPhone 15 Pro on Wednesday. The message, delivered through an early test version of Apple’s upcoming text message summary feature, read, “No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from the apartment.” This AI-generated summary neatly encapsulated several breakup texts from Spreen’s girlfriend. Spreen shared a screenshot of the AI-generated message on the X social network, writing, “For anyone who’s wondered what an Apple Intelligence summary of a breakup text looks like.” He mentioned that the screenshot did not show his ex-girlfriend’s full real name, just a nickname.
The summary feature of Apple Intelligence, announced by the iPhone maker in June, isn’t expected to fully ship until iOS 18.1. However, it has been available in beta since July, which is what Spreen is running on his iPhone. The feature works by reading incoming text messages and delivering its own simplified version of their content. On X, Spreen responded to skepticism over whether the message was real in a follow-up post.
“Yes, this was real. Yes, it happened yesterday. Yes, it was my birthday,” Spreen wrote.
When contacted directly via email, Spreen provided his own summary of his girlfriend’s messages. “It was something along the lines of ‘I can’t believe you just did that, we’re done, I want my stuff.’ We had an argument in a bar, and I got up and left. Then she sent the text,” he wrote.
Ai relationship summaries stir emotions
When asked how he felt about getting the news via AI summary, Spreen said, “I do feel like it added a level of distance to it that wasn’t a bad thing. Maybe a bit like a personal assistant who stays professional and has your back even in the most awful situations, but yeah, more than anything, it felt unreal and dystopian.”
Spreen’s experience appears to be the first instance of an AI-mediated relationship breakup, but it likely won’t be the last.
As the Apple Intelligence feature rolls out widely and other tech companies embrace AI message summarization, many people will probably be receiving bad news through AI summaries soon. For example, since March, Google’s Android Auto AI has been able to summarize texts to users while driving. If that sounds horrible, consider our ever-evolving social tolerance for tech progress.
Back in the 2000s when SMS texting was still novel, breaking up through text messages was considered inexcusably rude and was unusual enough to generate significant social commentary. By 2009, as texting became more commonplace, the stance on texting break-ups began to soften. According to Kristina Grish, author of “The Joy of Text: Mating, Dating, and Techno-Relating,” attitudes towards text-based breakups have evolved.
“It’s not unusual that people are breaking up this way so much,” Grish said. Today, with text messaging being the default way most adults communicate remotely, breaking up through text is commonplace enough that Cosmopolitan discussed it in a 2023 article. “I can tell you with complete confidence as an experienced professional in the field of romantic failure that of these options, I would take the breakup text any day,” wrote Kayle Kibbe.
Who knows, in the future people may well be asking their personal AI assistants to deliver a personalized break-up message with sensitivity. As technology continues to integrate into our personal lives, the line between digital convenience and personal interaction will only blur further.
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